THIS week Richard Keith Sutton was jailed for 14 years for repeatedly raping a teenage girl and indecently assaulting three teenage boys at a Merseyside care home.

Today, two of his victims speak exclusively to LIZ HULL about their years of hell.

It really was the stuff of childhood nightmares come true>

SENTENCING Sutton, Judge Brian Lewis described his offences as "the stuff of childhood nightmares come true".

After a three-week trial, the jury at Liverpool crown court unanimously found Sutton, 58, of Cheapside, Formby, guilty of three rapes and six indecent assaults against a teenage girl, 10 charges of indecent assault against a 15-year-old boy and eight indecent assaults against a 14-year-old boy.

He was also convicted of serious sexual assault and three charges of indecent assault against a 16-year-old boy.

The offences all took place over 10 years from 1983 at a Merseyside care home. Judge Lewis told Sutton: "You have shown not the slightest remorse for your activities.

"The children placed in your charge and care were already damaged and vulnerable having emerged in many cases from uncaring, fractured families.

"The last thing that they needed was to be the subject of your sexual degradation. It really was the stuff of childhood nightmares come true."

ChildLine: 0800 1111

PAULA'S STORY>

PAULA Vinall was a 16-year-old virgin when she was first raped by Sutton.

Three years later, after a campaign of rape and sexual abuse by the care worker, she was pregnant with his baby, a baby she later aborted.

The abuse she suffered was the ultimate betrayal for the teenager. Because Paula said that when she first met Sutton at the age of 15, she considered him "her best mate".

"I actually really liked him," said Paula, now 35, from Birkenhead. "That's why it has been so hard to come to terms with what he did.

"If I ever had a problem he was the man I would go to. At first he was really nice, I could not fault him. But when I was 16 the abuse started."

Sutton first raped Paula after he helped her leave the care home and move into her own flat.

She had been in care since she was 10 days old after being abandoned by her parents - so it was a big move.

Paula said: "I was put in a half-way house to try and learn some independence, but I really didn't have a clue about how to look after myself.

"I was a virgin when he first raped me. Every time he came near me I fought so hard to get him away, I punched, kicked and spat, but I had no chance.

"He is a big tall bloke and I am only 5ft 2in."

But when Sutton's abuse started, she found herself too frightened to speak out. "I was too scared to tell anyone, even my social worker, because I thought I would be the most hated person in the home," she said.

"I had no-one to talk to, no family, or parents. There is a code of silence in care homes that only children raised there understand and I stuck to that."

In the three years that followed, Paula was repeatedly raped and at 19 she discovered she was pregnant. It was Sutton's baby.

"He made me take the pregnancy test and drove me to have the abortion," said Paula. "He told me it was for thebest, I didn't really have a say in it.

"At the time I knew I couldn't have the baby, after being in care there is no way I could have given a baby away and there was no way I was having his child.

"He told me to tell the clinic that I'd had a one-night stand at a party, and stupidly I did. He said he loved me and wanted to take care of me and I believed him.

'I was not clued up at all - I was 19, going on 13."

Paula missed out on an education and has found it hard to get work. She was suspended from school nine times, before being expelled, and has no qualifications.

"The abuse still affects me in every way," she said.

"Even now I am grown up and understand what happened I still can't talk to people in authority, which always stops me keeping a job.

"I usually end up getting the sack because of my attitude."

Paula said it was important for her to confront her fear and give evidence against Sutton in court last week.

She said: "I could hardly bear to look at him. I'm just glad he didn't speak when I was in court, it was bad enough seeing his face, but his voice would have brought it all flooding back."

Of his conviction, she said: "Everyone expects me to feel on top of the world, but I don't feel happy.

"I'm glad he got what he deserved, but all my life I haven't ever been able to move on and have had to live with what he did."

Paula is gay and has been living with her girlfriend for 15 years. "My girlfriend has been my backbone throughout all of this," she said. "I didn't tell her what had happened until the case came up, but she has helped me every step of the way.

"What I really want is not to be an outcast anymore. I just want a normal life like everyone else."

ChildLine: 0800 1111

PETER'S STORY>

TEARS streamed down Peter Hall's face as the foreman read the verdict out in court.

The man who had subjected him to more than seven years of physical and sexual abuse in a Merseyside care home was finally being locked away for 14 years.

Today Peter, said: "It was so emotional I just broke down.

"It was a great relief that justice has been done."

Peter, now 37, was put into care at 10-years-old after being sexually abused by his father.

After moving from care home to home he was eventually given a place at a centre in Merseyside. It is here that the vulnerable youngster came into contact with Sutton and within a month Peter says he was being beaten up and sexually abused by him.

On one occasion Sutton even broke Peter's leg after hurling him down stairs in a rage.

Peter, who had few friends at the home, was won over by Sutton who pretended to be his friend by buying him gifts.

"When I was younger I was a real loner, I never knew any love from my parents," said Peter.

"Sutton won my trust by telling me he was my best friend, he got me on his side by buying me cigarettes, sweets and alcohol.

"But within a month of my arrival the abuse started. As well as the sexual abuse, he used to hit and punch me constantly.

"I used to cry myself to sleep every night, I was so frightened of him."

Peter, who eventually left when he was 17, said: "The home had a strict regime - it was like a training camp.

"When we got up in the morning we were given chores to do, we used to have to clean the home and make sure all beds were made.

"Then we were put in an exercise yard, which was just like a prison yard, and told to run around.

"We had no education, when I left I couldn't read and write and I still have trouble now.

"We didn't have anything like what I would call lessons, the teachers couldn't control us and didn't care if we got an education or not because they still got paid."

Peter, who is gay, said the abuse has affected the way he builds relationships and trusts people.

He said: "When I was 19, after I left the home, I got married. But it was purely for comfort.

"I had never been loved before so when someone showed an interest in me I clung to her.

"We never really had a sexual relationship, I didn't know anything about loving sex, all I knew was abuse.

"Eventually she realised I was gay and we divorced."

After his divorce Peter moved back to Manchester to try to move on with his life. But he found it difficult to trust anyone. He left the home without any qualifications, was unable to find a job and forced to survive on benefit.

In 1993 when he was viciously stabbed by two youths. A year later he was diagnosed as HIV positive.

"It's still very difficult for me to build relationships," said Peter. "I don't have a partner and find it hard to trust anyone in authority."

Peter moved to Bedfordshire and began his life again. But in March 1999 his world was turned upside down again when he was contacted by officers from Merseyside Police's Operation Care.

"When that letter came through my door everything came flooding back and I had to relive it all again," he said.

Peter came face to face with Sutton for the first time in more than 20 years last week. He said: "I still felt very frightened of him. He was smirking in the dock."

Peter, who is a director and volunteer for aids charity, Bedfordshire Body Positive, said he now hopes to finally move on.

"Sutton ruined my life 100%," he said.

"I was absolutely buzzing when I heard the verdict, it is a real victory.

"But 14 years is not enough, I have still got to live with what he did.

"He robbed me of my life, now I just hope that people abused in care will come forward and help put these people away.

"But I'm optimistic that this is a real turning point in my life and now I can finally start to put what happened behind me."